That universal dictum “truth triumphs” turned out to be true in the case of an upright Indian civil servant,Arundati Panda.
However her struggle for getting one's legitimate dues had never been an easy one, reports,www.Indian mandarins.com
Records show that Arundati Panda, IP&TA&Finance Service of 1985 batch, was appointed HEC Director Finance on 27 December 2017.But she was denied confirmation in her job by then HEC CMD Avijit Ghosh for “ulterior reasons”, states Indian mandarins.com’s story.
It adds:”however,her efforts to save money of the ailing public sector company (HEC)from the greed and corruption of its own CMD( read Avijit Ghosh)are due to be shortly acknowledged by way of being confirmed by the ACC in her job as Director Finance till her superannuation on 30 September 2022.”
Indian mandarins.com story has informed:“And for the ex-CMD, the trial of his life may shortly begin.”The same story states as follows:
“Ms. Panda's tribulation began soon after she objected to the diversion of funds from HEC and the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) to their joint initiative called Common Engineering Facility Center (CEFC) Pratham Foundation. This organization, based in Gurgaon, was to function as an SPV (linked with CNIITMASH, Moscow), but had very little to its credit in terms of skill development, despite the infusion of funds from both the DHI and HEC. “
“The blowback was soon to hit Ms. Panda. Then CMD Ghosh recommended to the GoI that Ms. Panda's services need not be confirmed. This was in the exercise of his power - which is invested in all the CMDs of CPSUs to confirm or non-confirm a board-level appointment after one year of completion of service by an appointee.”
“Indian-mandarins has learned that Ghosh used his power to give a rating of 37.5 points out of 50 points (far from satisfactory) to Ms. Panda and forwarded the same to the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) for non-confirmation of her services due to poor performance. “
This prompted Ms. Panda to present the ACC with her own side of the story that pivoted on the funds transferred by Avijit Ghosh to the CEFC Pratham Foundation, which was a private company and which had Ghosh as its director.”
Alarmed by Ms. Panda's narrative, the ACC directed the Department of Public Enterprise and the PSEB to reconsider the recommendation made by Ex- CMD Ghosh.
“As the racket got busted, in January 2019, the DHI had to issue the order for winding up the CEFC Pratham Foundation that has been causing a huge loss to the state treasury.”
“This materialized because effectively, Ms. Panda established that Ghosh’s recommendation against her was contaminated by his dubious role in the outflow of over ₹23 crores to the private foundation that had only trained 89 people over two years with the grants given to it.”
“Further, a proper audit may be ordered to figure out how much of tax ₹ was transferred by HEC and or CEFC Pratham Foundation to Russian company CNIITMASH. This matter may not blow up because of its perceived impact on Indo-Russian bilateral relations but under the channel, the two governments are bound to share the information.”